LACAN AND FREUD ON THE STRUCTURE OF

PSYCHOSIS :

THE TECHNIQUE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS,

THE CONCEPTS OF TRANSFERENCE, FREE

ASSOCIATION, WORKING THROUGH AND

CONSTRUCTION IN ANALYSIS

BY

COLIN LESLIE DEAN

B.SC, B.A, B.LITT (HONS), M.A, B,LITT (HONS), M.A,

M.A (PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES),

(AN ACADEMIC WANKER)

2

LACAN AND FREUD ON THE STRUCTURE OF

PSYCHOSIS :

THE TECHNIQUE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS.

THE CONCEPTS OF TRANSFERENCE, FREE

ASSOCIATION, WORKING THROUGH AND

CONSTRUCTION IN ANALYSIS

BY

COLIN LESLIE DEAN

B.SC, B.A, B.LITT (HONS), M.A, B,LITT (HONS), M.A,

M.A (PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES),

(AN ACADEMIC WANKER)

GAMAHUCHER PRESS: WEST GEELONG, VICTORIA,

AUSTRALIA

3

2005

4

INDEX

THE STRUCTURE OF PSYCHOSIS P .4

THE TECHNIQUE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: THE CONCEPTS OF

TRANSFERENCE, FREE ASSOCIATION, WORKING

THROUGH AND CONSTRUCTION IN ANALYSIS. P.16

5

THE STRUCTURE OF PSYCHOSIS

This essay will compare Freud’s and Lacan’s views about the structure of psychosis.

For Freud psychosis was a form of primary narcissism. The psychotic withdraws his

libido from objects and things and redirectes it onto his ego. It will be shown that for

Freud the paranoiac’s delusions are due to an idea the ego rejects. The ego projects

this rejected idea outside itself such that this idea the Ego does not recognize as ever

having. The psychotics delusions are the irrupting from the outside of these rejected

ideas back into the ego. These delusions are an attempt by the psychotic to cathext his

libido onto objects he initially de-cathexted in his primary narcissism. It will be

shown that Freud makes a structural distinction between paranoia and dementia

praecox where what distinguishes dementia praecox from paranoia is that the latter

has the process of projection and the former hallucinatory hysteria. It is from this

concept of projection, it will be shown, that Lacan derives his concept of foreclosure.

Foreclosure for Lacan is the defining structural element of psychosis. It will be shown

that for Lacan psychosis comes about when ‘the Name-Of –The Father’ is foreclosed

and thus a gap, or hole in the signifying chain is created. In foreclosure ‘the Name-Of

–The Father’ is suppressed and the psychotic behaves as if he never had ‘the Name-Of

–The Father’. When foreclosure happens the suppressed ‘the Name-Of –The Father’

can irrupt back from the outside in the form of delusions and, or hallucinations.

Foreclosure and projection are for Freud and Lacan forms of defense.

6

The term psychosis was introduced by Feuchtersleben, in 1845, to donate mental

illness as distinct from neurosis, which denoted afflictions of the nervous system.1

Psychoanalysis distinguishes between perversions, neurosis and psychosis.2 Psychosis

comprises the different structures of paranoia including delusional conditions;

schizophrenia (called also dementia praecox) and melancholia and mania.3 This essay

will show that both Freud and Lacan make a structural distinction between paranoia

and schizophrenia. Freud talks of psychosis in general and paranoia and dementia

praecox in particular. Lacan in the main deals in the main with paranoia. It should be

pointed out that where neurosis is due to repression, psychosis is due to projection

according to Freud and foreclosure according to Lacan. Repression is the defensive

mechanism whereby an idea is buried in the unconscious and foreclosure whereby an

idea is expelled from the unconscious.4

J. Laplanche & J.B. Pontalis point out that Freud went through at least two phases in

his writings about psychosis.5 In the first phase Freud tied his explanation of

psychosis to his theory of sexuality. In the second phase Freud tied his theory of

psychosis to libidinal instincts and narcissism. Freud in the first phase tries to show

the defensive conflicts against sexuality, which he asserts are at work in certain

neuroses, can also be used to explain psychoses.6 In this phase of Freud’s writings he

advances a theory about the defensive mechanism of psychosis i.e. projection. Lacan

will take up this theory in one of its forms in his theory about the structure of

1 J. Laplanche & J.B. Pontalis, ‘Psychosis ‘ in The Language of Psycho-Analysis, Hogarth Press, 1983, p.372. 2 ibid,. p.370. 3 ibid,. p.370. 4 D. Evans, ‘Foreclosure’ in An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Brunner-Routledge, 1996, p.65. 5 J. Laplanche & J.B. Pontalis, op.cit. p.371. 6 ibid,. p.371.

7

psychosis centered on foreclosure. Also these early formulations of psychotic defense

will add further clarification to Freud’s later writings about the structure of psychosis

centered on projection.

Freud in his work The Neuro-psychoses of defense introduces an account about the

defense of psychosis. In this account Freud claims that the defense comprises the ego

rejecting ideas it does not like and going on to behave as if it never had the ideas in

the first place. As Freud states, “... [here is] a kind of defense. Here, the ego rejects

the incompatible idea together with its affect and behaves as if the idea had never

occurred to the ego at all.”7 It will be shown that this idea is taken up by Lacan and is

expressed in his idea about foreclosure. Freud goes on to say in the same article that

when the ego rejects the incompatible idea it, in effect, detaches itself in part, or

wholly from reality. Freud states this clearly when he says, “…the ego breaks away

from the incompatible idea, but the latter is inseparably connected with a piece of

reality, so that, in so far as the ego achieves this result, it, too, has detached itself

wholly or in part from reality.”8 We will see that this idea fits with Freud’s later ideas,

in his second phase, around the primary narcissism of psychosis.

Between 1911 and 1914 Freud formulated his theory on the structure of psychosis

around his theory of the libidinal instincts and his ideas of narcissism. In his

‘Psychoanalytic notes on an autobiographical case of paranoia (dementia paranoids)

Freud lays out a libidinal account of psychosis. In this account psychosis is a 7 S. Freud, The Neuro-psychoses of defense’, in SE, Vol. 111, Tran, J. Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1973, p.58. 8ibid,. p.59.

8

regression to a primary narcissism where the libidinal de-cathexis of people, objects

and things in the external world to a cathexis of the libido onto the ego. As Freud

states, “… the turning away of the libido from the external world is a particularly

clearly-marked feature in dementia praecox. From this feature we infer that the

repression is affected by means of detachment of the libido.”9 And again, “…[t]he

patient has withdrawn from the people in his environment and from the external world

generally the libidinal cathexis which he has hitherto directed on to them.”10 Freud

goes so far as to say that it is this loss of libidinal interest in the world that accounts

for the paranoiac’s altered position with regard to reality. On this point Freud says,

“… [it] therefore appears to me far more probable that the paranoiac’s altered relation

to the world is to be explained entirely or in the main by the loss of his libidinal

interest.”11 In his work Libido theory and narcissism Freud says that this libidinal

de-cathexis is also a major element in dementia praecox. As Freud states, “…the main

characteristic of dementia praecox…is to be that in it the libidinal cathexis of objects

was lacking …it is turned back on the ego…these first explanations ... have becomes

the basis of our attitude to the psychosis.”12

In On narcissism: An introduction Freud refers to this de-cathaexis as a regression to

narcissism. Here Freud states, “…the libido that has been withdrawn from the external

world has been directed to the ego and thus gives rise to an attitude which may be

called narcissism.”13 In psychosis Freud claims that the psychotic, in this primary

9 S. Freud, ‘Psycho-Analytic Notes on An Autobiographical Account of A Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides) ’, in SE, Vol. X11, Tran J. Strachey, 2001. p.77. 10 ibid,. p.70. 11 ibid,. p.75. 12 S. Freud, ‘Libido Theory and Narcissism’ in Introductory Lectures on psychoanalysis, Trans J. Strachey, 1982, Penguin, p.464- 465. 13S. Freud, ‘On Narcissism : An Introduction’, In On Metapyschology Tran J. Strachey, Penguin, 1991. p.67.

9

narcissism, does not replace the objects he has de-cathexted by objects in phantasy. 14

This is in stark contrast to the neurotic who likewise withdraws his libido from reality

but does replace the objects by objects in phantasy.15 Now this does not say that the

psychotic does not replace the objects he has de-cathexted. In fact, the replacement of

the de-cathexted objects plays a major structural role in Freud’s structural account of

psychosis.

The replacement by the psychotic by objects that he has de-cathexted is an attempt at

recovery on the part of the psychotic designed to lead the libido back to its objects.

On these points Freud states that the psychotic, “… seems really to have withdrawn

his libido from people and things in the external world, without replacing them in

phantasy. When he does so replace them, the process seems to be a secondary one and

so be part of an attempt at recovery, designed to lead the libido back to objects.”16

Freud calls the process that undoes the act of repression or de-cathexis and leads the

libido back to its objects projection.17

Freud claims that the most striking feature of symptom-formation in paranoia is the

process of projection.18 In projection “…[a]n internal perception is suppressed, and

instead its content, after undergoing a certain kind of distortion, enters consciousness

in the form of an external perception …”19 Now here is required a point of

clarification. Freud notes that this suppression is not internally projected out rather it

returns from without because it was not so much suppressed as abolished. As Freud

14ibid,. p.66. 15 ibid,. p.66. 16 ibid,. p.66. 17 ibid,. p.71. 18 ibid,. p.66. 19 S. Freud, Psycho-Analytic Notes on An Autobiographical Account of A Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides) ’, in SE, Vol. X11, Tran J. Strachey, 2001. p.66.

10

states, “…[i]t was incorrect to say that the perception which was suppressed internally

is projected outwards; the truth is rather, as we now see, that what was abolished

internally returns from without.”20 We can gain clarification of what Freud means by

‘abolished’ if we go back to his statement in, The Neuro-psychoses of defense where

Freud said the ego rejects an incompatible idea and behaves as if it never had the idea

in the first place. Freud was tempted to regard projection as the defining process of

paranoia but stopped at this by realizing that other forms of paranoia and pathology

did not involve projection. 21 Projection is the process used by a paranoiacs to recover

from his libidinal de-cathexis. The paranoiac’s delusion or, “… delusional formation,

which we take to be the pathological product is in reality an attempt at recovery, a

process of reconstruction.”22 The symptoms of the paranoiacs are the irruptions of

the repressed [suppressed] from the outside. In other words what has been abolished

from the ego returns in the form of symptom-formations. Freud points this out when

he says, “… the most important thing as regards pathological phenomena, is that of

failure of repression, of irruption [symptom-formation], of return of the repressed.” 23

The megalomaniac symptoms that Schreber had i.e. his “ world catastrophe” are an

example, according to Freud of the irruption of the suppressed, a return from without

of ideas Schreber abolished from consciousness. These returning irrupting ideas

represent his libido trying to make contact with what was initially de-cathexted . As

Freud notes, “…the end of the world is the projection of this internal catastrophe; his

subjective world has come to an end since his withdrawal of his love from it.”24 Freud

argues that the process of projection marks paranoia off structurally from dementia

praecox. In dementia praecox the psychotic uses an hysterical hallucinatory 20 ibid,. p.71. 21ibid,. p.66. 22 ibid,. p.71. 23 ibid,. p.68. 24 ibid,. p.70.

11

mechanism to recover de-cathexted objects whereas the paranoiac uses projection. As

Freud states, “…this attempt at recovery, which observers mistake for the disease

itself, does not, as in paranoia, make use of projection, but employs a hallucinatory

(hysterical) mechanism. This is one of the two major respects in which dementia

praecox differs from paranoia …”25 The process of projection links up with Lacan’s

structural account of psychosis via his concept of foreclosure.

Lacan links foreclosure with the signifying network, or language and relates it to the

defining structure of psychosis. It should be pointed out, as Evans does, that Lacan

maintains a structural distinction between paranoia and schizophrenia and that it is

paranoia that Lacan focuses on in regard to psychosis.26 To go right to the heart of

Lacan’s account of psychosis we state his definition:

“It is in an accident in this register [signifying chain i.e. language] and in what

takes place in it namely, the foreclosure of the name-of the-father in the place

of the Other, and in the failure of the paternal metaphor, that I designate the

defect that gives psychosis its essential condition, and the structure that

separates it from neurosis.”27

‘The Name-Of-The Father’, capitalized, in Lacan’s work The Psychosis represents the

fundamental signifier which allows all other significations to take place. The Name-

Of-The Father creates a subject’s identity as it names him by positioning him in the

symbolic order as well as signifying the no of the incest taboo contained in the

25 ibid,. p.77. 26 D. Evans, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Brunner-Routledge, 1996, p.157. 27 J. Lacan, ‘On a Question Preliminary to any Possible Treatment of Psychosis’, Ecrits, A Selection, Routledge, 1977, p.238.

12

Oedipal prohibition.28 Thus when this fundamental signifier is not included in the

symbolic order we can see how a hole appears. Without ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ in

the signifying chain the signifying chain lacks its prime component and thus there

appears a hole or gape with regard to signification or meaning; all the other signifiers

are not held together by anything. When this happens we have psychosis according to

Lacan.

This in psychosis ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ is not integrated in the symbolic

universe [signifying chain i.e. language] of the psychotic i.e. it is foreclosed, with the

result, as Evans notes, “… a hole is left in the symbolic order.”29 This hole in the

symbolic order results in the psychotic being imprisoned in the imaginary.30 Lacan

claims that, “…[if] the neurotic inhabits language, the psychotic is inhabited,

possessed by language.”31 We will now unpack the terms in Lacan’s definition so as to

gain greater clarity in regard to what it means.

We see in Lacan’s definition that ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ suffers foreclosure by the

psychotic. ‘The Name-Of-The Father’ is abolished from the signifying chain and as

such leaves a hole in the signifying chain. This foreclosure links up with what Freud

said in The Neuro-psychoses of defense namely, “…the ego rejects the incompatible

idea together with its affect and behaves as if the idea had never occurred to the ego at

28 D, Evans, ‘Name-Of-The Father’ op.cit, p.119 29 D. Evans, op.cit, p.155. 30 ibid,. p.156. 31 J. Lacan, The Seminar, Book 111, The Psychosis, 1955-56, trans R. Grigg, Roiutledge, 1993, p.250.

13

all.”32 We see then how Lacan’s structural definition of psychosis links up with

Freud’s account of the irruption of the repressed [suppressed] into the psychotic’s

consciousness. Thus Lacan’s notion of ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ and foreclosure

means, in terms of Freud’s above account, the psychotic suppresses ‘the Name-Of-The

Father’ and behaves as if he never had the thought, but ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ can

irrupt or appear from with out in the form of delusions or hallucinations in a psychotic

attack Just like in Freud’s understanding of the psychotic, in Lacan’s understanding,

due to foreclosure, the psychotic suffers from hallucinations and or delusions when

the foreclosed ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ irrupts back into the real, and because of the

collision with the unassailable ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ the psychotic is unable to

assimilate it in his consciousness.33

Lacan claims that two conditions must be met for psychosis to emerge. The first

condition is that the subject must have a psychotic structure i.e. foreclosure, and

secondly, ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ must be in symbolic opposition with the

subject.34 If the first is absent then no conflict will manifest when ‘the Name-Of-The

Father’ appears. Lacan maintains that a neurotic can never become a psychotic.35 If in

the absence of ‘the Name-Of-The Father’ the psychotic structure, of foreclosure, will

lay latent; as a consequence then it is possible for a psychotic not to exhibit

symptoms.36

32 S. Freud, The Neuro-psychoses of defense’, in SE, Vol. 111, Tran J.Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1973, p.58. 33 D, Evans. ‘Foreclosure’, op.cit, p.65. 34 D, Evans. ‘Psychosis’, op.cit, p.155. 35 ibid,. p.155. 36 ibid,. p.155.

14

Thus we see how Freud and Lacan give a structural account of psychosis. We saw

how Freud like Lacan make a structural distinction between paranoia and

schizophrenia. For Freud psychosis is a form of primary narcissism. In psychosis

according to Freud the libido is de-cathexted from objects and things and cathexted

onto the ego. The process that explains the paranoiac’s delusion is that of projection.

In projection the paranoiac suppresses certain ideas and behaves as if he never had

them. These ideas irrupt from the outside in the form of delusions in a paranoia attack.

This process of projection differentiates dementia praecox from paranoia. In the

former the causes of the hallucinations is a hallucinatory hysteria. Lacan takes up

Freud’s ideas around projection and formulates them in his concept of foreclosure.

Foreclosure is what structurally defines psychosis. For Lacan the psychotic forecloses

‘the Name-Of –The Father.’ ‘The Name-Of –The Father’ is the fundamental signifier.

It is ‘the Name-Of –The Father’ that creates a person’s identity by placing him in the

signifying chain. When this foreclosure happens there is a hole in the signifying

world and hallucinations and, or delusions can irrupt into the psychotic’s

consciousness. Foreclosure of ‘the Name-Of –The Father’ means that ‘the Name-Of –

The Father’ is suppressed and the psychotic behaves as if he never had it. Then it can

irrupt from without in the form of hallucinations and, or delusions. For Lacan we saw

that a psychotic may not exhibit any symptoms if ‘the Name-Of–The Father’ is

absent, and thus foreclosure and hence psychosis may lay latent.

15

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Evans, D. An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Brunner-

Routledge, 1996.

‘Foreclosure’, in An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Brunner-

Routledge, 1996, pp.64-65.

‘Psychosis’, in An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Brunner-

Routledge, 1996, pp.154-157.

‘Name-Of-The Father’ in An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis,

Brunner-Routledge, 1996, pp.119.

Freud, S. The Neuro-psychoses of defense’, in SE, Vol. 111, Tran J. Strachey,

Hogarth Press, 1973.

‘Libido Theory and Narcissism’ in Introductory Lectures on psychoanalysis, Trans J.

Strachey, 1982, Penguin, pp. 461-482..

On Narcissism : An Introduction’, In On Metapyschology Tran J. Strachey, Penguin,

1991, pp.59-99.

‘Psycho-Analytic Notes on An Autobiographical Account of A Case of Paranoia

(Dementia Paranoides) ’, in SE, Vol. X11, Tran J.Strachey, 2001, pp.9-80.

Lacan , J. The Seminar, Book 111, The Psychosis, 1955-56, trans R. Grigg,

Routledge, 1993.

‘On a Question Preliminary to any Possible Treatment of Psychosis’, Ecrits,

Routledge, 1977 , pp. 198-250.

Laplanche. J, & Pontalis .J .B, ‘Psychosis’ in The Language of Psycho-Analysis,

Hogarth Press, 1983, pp.369-372.

‘Foreclosure’, in The Language of Psycho-Analysis, Hogarth Press, 1983, pp. 166-

169.

16

THE TECHNIQUE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS. THE CONCEPTS OF

TRANSFERENCE, FREE ASSOCIATION, WORKING THROUGH AND

CONSTRUCTION IN ANALYSIS.

This essay will deal with the technique of psychoanalysis. This technique involves

transference; free association; working through and construction. This essay will show

how all these techniques are linked together and feed in upon each other in the overall

therapeutic endeavor of psychoanalysis. It will be shown that transference is a process

of resistance and involves the patient repeating past infantile patterns and projecting

them into the relationship he has with the doctor. Transference it will be seen is a

distortion of objective reality in that the patient views the doctor relationship through

the eyes of unconscious phantasy, infantile imago’s and stereotype plates or patterns. I

will show that transference involves a mechanism of transference and a dynamics of

transference which Freud called transference neurosis. Transference it will be shown

is a form of resistance. This resistance hinders the technique of free association. Free

association it will be shown is the technique where by the analyst gets access to the

unconscious of the patient and as such gains insight into the causes of the patients

condition. Free association links up with working through where by the analyst

confronts the patients resistances and gradually by working through the resistances the

patients gains an intellectual insight into the resistances to eventually achieve an

emotional insight. All these techniques link up in the analysts constructions.

Constructions it will be shown are built up on the material of free associations

repetitions and connections formed through transference. These constructions then

build up the history of the patients childhood and fill in the gaps of forgotten, or

17

repressed memories. Constructions it will be seen bring together the techniques of

psychoanalysis

Transference for Freud was a process where by there was an actualization of

unconscious content. It was a process whereby the patient transferred onto the

analysis past infantile experiences and strong emotive feelings such as hatred,

jealousy, sexual attraction, love, feelings of dependency. In his article, “The Dynamics

of Transference”, Freud makes a distinction between the mechanisms of transference

and the dynamics of transference. Put simply the mechanism of transference was that

process whereby stereotypical plates laid down in infancy are activated up in the

setting of analysis and out of which arises the dynamics of the patients contemporary

relationship with the analyst.

In regard to the mechanism of transference the stereotype plates play a major role.

Stereotype plates are those methods a person has acquired in the handling and

conduct of life- such as the way a person approaches love.37 These plates are

constantly repeated and reprinted.38 Now those portions of the libidinal impulses that

are held up in the course of development and are kept away from consciousness can

only be expressed in phantasy.39 Now if a person is unsatisfied in love they will

approach every new person with an anticipatory ideas based upon these stereotypes

plates and phantasies.40 The libido that has been repressed feeds the subjects

37 S, Freud, “The Dynamics of Transference”, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Case History of Schreber, Papers on Technique and Other Works, Trans by J. Strachey, Vintage, 2000, p.100. 38 ibid,. p.100. 39 ibid,. p.100. 40 ibid,. p.100.

18

phantaises41. In this regard the libido has entered on a regressive path and feeds the

subjects infantile imago’s around the stereotype plates.42 Now in regard to the

dynamic transference Freud notes that the libidinal cathexis that is held back i.e. that

which is unsatisfied is directed onto the analyst. Freud states that “ … this cathexis

will have recourse to prototypes, in the subjects; or, to put the position another way,

the cathexis will introduce the doctor into one of the psychical ‘series’ which the

patient has formed.”43 Thus the dynamics transference [i.e. patient doctor

relationship], according to Freud, has been set up by the repressed stereotypes which

have invested libidinal impulses attached to the infantile imago’s. The transference to

the doctors is according to Freud based upon conscious and unconscious anticipatory

ideas centered around the stereotype plates.44

In his article ‘Observations on Transference Love’ Freud offers a slightly contrasting

account of transference. In this work Freud argues that transference is a activation and

repetition of unconscious desires stemming from childhood. Freud argues in regard to

transference love that it is not part of the present setting of the analysis but a repetition

and copy from the past and earlier reactions including infantile ones. 45 The dynamic

situation of the patients transference love directed onto the doctor is woven with

infantile phantasies and object choices.46 Here Freud’s account runs parallel to his

account in The Dynamics of Transference since in Observations on Transference Love

Freud claims that the transference love is based upon infantile patterns, or stereotype

41 ibid,. p. 100. 42 Ibid,. p.102. 43 ibid,. p.100. 44 ibid,. p.100. 45 S. Freud, Observations on Transference Love’ , in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Case History of Schreber, Papers on Technique and Other Works, Trans by J. Strachey, Vintage, 2000, p.167. 46 ibid,. p.167.

19

plates. It should be remembered that transference can be positive i.e. based upon

friendly or affectionate feelings as well as negative i.e. based upon aggression and

hate.47

In his article Remembering, Repeating and Working Through Freud gives a name to

this dynamic transference. In this work Freud refers to it as transference neurosis.

The transference neurosis is an artificial neurosis48. The transference neurosis is built

upon and around the relationship of the doctor patient. It is an artificial and new

edition to the clinical neurosis through which the infantile neurosis is uncovered. As

Freud notes “ … we regularly succeed in giving all the symptoms of the illness

[clinical neurosis] a new transference meaning and replacing his ordinary neurosis by

a transference –neurosis.”49 This transference neurosis is an intermediate space

between illness and real life and through which the transition from one to the other is

made.50 The transference neurosis is, according to Freud, the play ground in which

the patients compulsions to repeat are allowed to take place and are thus rendered

harmless by giving the compulsions a field in which to assert themselves.51

Thus we see two things about the transference. Firstly the transference is a distortion

of present reality via the secondly re-activation and re-experiencing of past infantile

patterns. The Distortion of reality is due to the displacement of past infantile patterns

or stereotype plates onto the present relationship with the doctor. These distortions are

47 S, Freud, “The Dynamics of Transference”, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Case History of Schreber, Papers on Technique and Other Works, Trans by J. Strachey, Vintage, 2000, p.105. 48 S. Freud., Remembering, Repeating and Working Through, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Case History of Schreber, Papers on Technique and Other Works, Trans by J. Strachey, Vintage, 2000, p.154. 49ibid,. p.154. 50 ibid,. p.154. 51 ibid,. p.154.

20

caused by transferring libidinal impulses related to infantile phantasies of aggression

and hate, or love onto the person of the doctor. Thus patient through transference

misrepresents the true nature of the patient doctor relationship by seeing it through

the eyes of unconscious phantasies and stereotype infantile patterns.

The transference is a form of resistance. As the analyst starts getting close to the cause

of the clinical neurosis resistance to the uncovering of the cause sets in the form of

transference. As Freud states “ the portion of [a pathogenic] complex which is capable

of transference is first pushed forward into consciousness and defended with the

greatest obstinacy … the intensity and the persistence of the transference are an effect

and expression of the resistance.”52 The resistance will be seen in the patient acting

out or repeating past behaviors.53 This acting out, or repeating in transference is a

form of remembering by the patient.54 A remembering not from memory but from

action in which case the patient does not know that he is repeating past experiences.55

Freud claims that the greater the resistance the greater the acting out thus the stronger

the transference.56

Now one of the aims of transference is facilitate the remembering of those gaps in

memory that is unconscious and held up by resistance and repression.57. Transference

is to help the patient to remember things that have never been forgotten because they

have never been conscious.58 Now there are two paradoxes in regard to transference

facilitating remembering unconscious content repressed and held up by resistance.:

52 S, Freud, “The Dynamics of Transference, op.cit, p.104. 53 S. Freud., Remembering, Repeating and Working Through, op.cit, p.150. 54 ibid,. p.150. 55 ibid,. p.150. 56 ibid,. p.151. 57 ibid,. pp.147-148. 58 Ibid,. p.149.

21

one centers around resistance and the other around the patient gaining insight into his

condition. The paradox of resistance is that it is both a form of repetition and thus a

resistance to therapy and on the other hand it is a tool to be used to overcome

resistance via helping the patient to remember what he is resisting to remember. The

paradox of insight, or remembering is that the transference conditions the patients

ability to remember, thus the emergence of the patient from transference is held back

indefinitely because remembering takes place in the transference which by definition

is a distortion of reality. Now the relevance of transference for analysis is that with

neurotics its is more intense and it is the most powerful resistance to the patients free

associations.

Free association is another technique of psychoanalysis where by all a patients

thoughts with out exception are allowed to be voiced spontaneously with out fore

thought and under the stipulation of the fundamental rule. Freud believed that all

thoughts where determined and thus free associations led directly to the unconscious

and thus understanding of the patients condition.59 In free association the patient is

required “… to put himself in a position of an attentive and dispassionate self-

observer, merely to read off all the time the surface of his consciousness and on the

one hand to make a duty of the most complete honesty [fundamental rule] while on

the other not to hold back any idea from communication …”60 In this way Freud

believed that he could uncover the unconscious determinates of a patients neurosis.

The first mental responses that came into mind is according to Freud “… the

59 S, Freud, The Prehistory of Analytic Technique, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. Xv111, trans by J, Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1973, p.254. 60 S. Freud, ‘Two Encyclopedia Articles, (A) Psychoanalysis’, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. Xv111, trans by J, Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1973, p.238.

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response to the minds desire for the unfolding of the subject.”61 The process that held

up the free associations and thus hindered the discovery of the determinates of a

patients condition was resistance. It was resistance that made the connections between

thoughts unrecognizable.62 It is interesting to note that Freud claims that it was this

technique of free association when applied to neurotics which he gave the name

psycho-analysis.63 In Remembering, Repeating and Working Through Freud points

out that it is by working through his resistances that a patient comes to understand the

determinates of his condition via free association.

Freud claims that in giving a resistance a name did not did not result in an immediate

cessation of the resistance64. Instead Freud argued that it was by working through the

resistance via the fundamental rule of free association that the patient became

acquainted with the resistance and thus eventually overcome it. As Freud states: “ one

must allow the patient time to become conversant with this resistance with which he

has now become acquainted, to work through it, overcome it by continuing, in

defiance of it, the analytic work according to the fundamental rule of analysis.”65

Freud claims that working through is both arduous for the patient and doctor but

nevertheless distinguishes psychoanalytic treatment from any other form of

treatment.66 Working through is the process that links intellectual awareness with

emotional awareness and is part of the transference interpretation which aims to turn

the intellectual awareness into emotional awareness.67 Intellectual awareness of the

61 S, Freud ,. Op.cit, p.263. 62 ibid,. p.264. 63 S. Freud,. Op.cit, p.239. 64 S. Freud., Remembering, Repeating and Working Through, op.cit, p.155. 65 ibid., p.154. 66 ibid,. p.155. 67 A. Bateman & J. Holmes, Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Brunner Routledge, 1995, p.177.

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resistance leads to working through and working through consolidates emotional

awareness.

Now all these techniques comes together in what Freud calls the construction. It must

be born in mind that constructions are different from interpretations. Interpretations

applies to what the analysis does to some single element such as a dream or

parapraxis.68 Constructions applies to the analysis laying before the patient the

forgotten parts of his early history.69 This construction is made up from material

arrived at via free association; repetitions belonging to repressed material and the

emotional connections brought to light by the transference.70 Thus the construction is

an explanation more extensive than an interpretation which seeks to construct the

early childhood experiences of the patient in both its real and phanatsy aspects. Freud

notes that it is often the case that the doctor does not succeed in bringing the

repressed material to the recollection of the patient. When this happens the truth

construction achieves the same therapeutic result as would the bringing to

consciousness the repressed memory. As Freud states “ quite often we do not succeed

in bringing the patient to recollect what has been repressed. Instead of that if the

analysis is carried out correctly, we produce in him an assured conviction of the truth

of the construction which achieves the same therapeutic result as a recaptured

memory,.”71 Freud claims that if the construction is wrong then no ill effect comes to

the patient. But on the other hand if the construction is correct then the patients

symptoms are alleviated and his general condition improves.72

68 S. Freud, ‘Constructions in Analysis’, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XX111, trans by J, Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1973, p.261. 69 ibid,. p.261. 70 ibid,. p.258. 71 ibid,. pp.255-256. 72 Ibid,. p.265.

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Thus we see that there are at least four techniques in psychoanalysis: transference,

free association, working through and construction. We saw how these techniques are

linked in a interconnected way. Construction is linked to transference free association

and working through. Free association is linked to transference and working through.

In transference we saw that the patient reactivated up infantile patterns phantasies and

imagos. These patterns etc interred into the patients doctor relationship by generating

a distortion of the contemporary reality. Transference was seen to involve a

mechanism of transference as well as a dynamic transference or transference neurosis.

The transference was a resistance and a acting out of repetitions of the patients life

albeit in an unconscious way. This resistance hindered the activity of free association

whereby the patient spontaneously said what came into his head. The working through

process is intended to work with this resistance first of all by giving the patient an

intellectual understanding of it which then leads to an emotional understanding. The

construction brings all this together in generating a history of the patients life based

upon the material of free association, repetitions working through and the connections

manifested in transference. We saw that transference led to two paradoxes. The first

paradox being that The paradox of resistance is that it is transference both a form of

repetition and thus a resistance to therapy and on the other hand it is a tool to be used

to overcome resistance via helping the patient to remember what he is resisting to

remember. The second paradox we saw was that transference can be dissolved by

understanding but transference conditions the patients understanding therefore the

dissolving of the transference is indefinitely held up

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bateman. A, & Holmes. J, Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Brunner Routledge,

1995.

Freud. S, ‘Constructions in Analysis’, in The Standard Edition of the Complete

Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XX111, trans by J, Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1973,

pp.255-271.

The Prehistory of Analytic Technique, in The Standard Edition of the Complete

Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. Xv111, trans by J, Strachey, Hogarth Press, 1973, pp.

235-255.

‘Two Encyclopedia Articles, (A) Psychoanalysis’, in The Standard Edition of the

Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. Xv111, trans by J, Strachey, Hogarth Press,

1973,

“The Dynamics of Transference”, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of

Sigmund Freud, Case History of Schreber, Papers on Technique and Other Works,

Trans by J. Strachey, Vintage, 2000,pp. 97-109.

‘Observations on Transference Love’ in The Standard Edition of the Complete Works

of Sigmund Freud, Case History of Schreber, Papers on Technique and Other Works,

Trans by J. Strachey, Vintage, 2000, pp.157-172.

‘Remembering, Repeating and Working Through’, in The Standard Edition of the

Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, Case History of Schreber, Papers on Technique

and Other Works, Trans by J. Strachey, Vintage, 2000, pp. 145-157.

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